FABERGÉ EASTER EGGS 279
Key dates
1793–2013
1800
1900
1910
1925
1950
2000
2015
1793 Catherine the
Great commissions the
coach that appears in
1885 Carl Fabergé the Coronation Egg
produces his first Easter
egg – the Hen Egg –
for a Russian Emperor
2013 Viktor Vekselberg,
owner of the single largest
collection of Fabergé eggs
in the world, opens Fabergé
Museum in St Petersburg
Bolshevik poster from
the Russian Revolution
Monsieur
Fa bergé’s
work reaches
the limits of
perfection
Review
Paris Exposition Universelle, 1900
Fabergé Easter eggs
Carl Fabergé’s workshop in St Petersburg, Russia,
pictured around 1910, after Carl and his brother Agathon
expanded their business to increase capacity
△ Coronation Egg, which contained a replica of Tsarina Alexandra’s coronation coach
Tsarina Alexandra,
Empress of Russia
1918 Nicholas and
Alexandra are murdered by
Bolsheviks in the aftermath
of the Russian Revolution
1897 At Easter, Nicholas
presents the Coronation
Egg to Tsarina Alexandra
2007 The Fabergé
family are reunified with
the Fabergé brand,
having lost their rights
to the name in 1920
I
n the Russian Orthodox Church,
Easter has always been the
most important date in the
calendar. After fasting for
weeks during Lent, the faithful
could look forward to the climax
of the celebrations on Easter
Sunday, when eggs – one of
the prohibited foods – would
be exchanged. These ranged
from real, hand-painted eggs
to artificial ones, produced as
presents for ladies. The most
sumptuous of all were the
jewelled eggs created by Carl Fabergé
for the tsarinas (empresses) of Russia.
Fabergé designed his first imperial egg
in 1885, when Alexander III commissioned
one as a gift for his wife. From the outset,
Carl was determined to do more than
simply create an aesthetic arrangement
of valuable gems. Instead, he hoped to
delight his royal client by placing a surprise
within a surprise. Inside his plain, enamelled
Hen Egg, there was a golden yolk,
containing a tiny golden hen. This in
turn could be opened up to
reveal two further surprises:
a miniature, diamond crown
and a ruby pendant.
The Hen Egg proved a
huge success and Fabergé
was engaged to create a similar
gift each year. This became
something of a royal tradition,
lasting for over 30 years, until
the outbreak of the Revolution.
The most exquisite example,
perhaps, is the Coronation Egg,
which was ordered as a gift for
the newly crowned empress, Alexandra.
The “surprise” was a perfect, miniature
replica of the coach that was used in the
ceremony, while the colour scheme of
the egg-shell echoed the design of her
dress. A decade later, in April 1907, the
Tsarina received the Rose Trellis Egg to
commemorate the birth of her first and only
son, Alexei. Decorated with pink enamel
roses and a lattice of rose-cut diamonds,
the egg contained a diamond necklace
and a portrait of the young Tsarevich Alexei.
Lily of the Valley Egg, a gift
from Nicholas to Alexandra
featuring Art Nouveau styling
1927 Joseph Stalin
sells several of the eggs
to enable him to acquire
foreign currency. Many
are taken to the West
1896 The coronation of Tsar
Nicholas II and Alexandra
takes place in Moscow
1907 Nicholas presents
the Rose Trellis Egg to
Alexandra to mark the
birth of Tsarevich Alexei
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